Hi,
I'm off to Wigan for the next round of the Adrian Hemingway Northern Speed Championship this weekend.

I'm currently sitting second in class and looking for a good time. Although my class has a big entry (around 26 drivers), there's only two others who are registered for my championship so I'm guaranteed 23 points if I can get a timed run in.

Of course, I'll post a full report on Monday for those who are interested.

A bit of a delay in posting this but here is my report from Sunday's Sprint at Three Sisters Race Circuit, near Wigan.

To make sure I was there for the 8am signing on and to avoid a 4am start, I chose to drive down Saturday and camp at a site near Lancaster. After a couple of pints of cider and the wailing of karaoke singers at the campsite bar, I turned in and surprisingly, managed to get a decent night's kip

Of course, I had forgotten that camping meant packing up the tent - so I ended up being a wee bit late for signing on, arriving at around 8.30am. This meant i had no time to walk the course

After scrutineering, we had a brief convoy run so at least I knew roughly where the corners were. The course, a purpose built kart-track, had about 8 corners. The layout meant we were to do 2 laps. The surface seemed quite good but loads of my fellow competitors were warning me that it could be fairly slippy.

Before long, I found myself queueing in the pit lane ready to start my first run. The marshals lined me up and I focused on the green light. I got a good start and snicked second gear before the first corner. Power on into a short straight and. what's this????........ another CORNER....... oh S***. BRAKE........ but I'm half way round the corner......... what's this, ANOTHER CORNER..... ARGHHH. Screeching tyres, a bit of smoke and somehow, somehow I managed to keep it on the blackstuff. Only another 14 corners to go

I eased off a bit and posted a time of 93.40 secs. Definitely room for improvement. I checked my main competition's time (remember 205GTi Paul who pipped me at Kames) - he hadn't managed to get a time. I still felt a bit uneasy about this

Second practice run felt much better - I remembered where all the corners were and managed a reasonably smooth 91.95. GTi Paul managed 94.19 I felt much better now. I knew I could find another second or so at least - if only I could be brave enough and not throw it all away on the proper timed runs.

After lunch, it was time for my first timed run. I attacked a bit harder but was still cautious enough to make sure I got a timed run in. I posted 91.73secs. Slightly better than before lunch but at least I had a time to count. GTi Paul - he was improving too - but only managed 93.32secs. Did he have anything left????????

I took the opportunity to watch some of the faster cars go through the long double apex bend. I noticed that the really fast guys were cutting the preceding kerb and taking a really wide line into the bend. That's for me, I thought.

Final run - I tried my new kerb cutting trick and carried loads more speed into the double apex. I kept it wide and managed to get on the power much quicker. The whole run felt smooth and quick. When I got back to check the results, I was delighted with 90.67secs - more than a second faster than before. But what had Paul done? He only managed 93.6secs. Revenge is sweet.........

I ended up being 13th out of 26 in my class which is a definite improvement. I managed to beat some decent cars including a couple of 205GTis, a rally prepped Nova GSi, a Lotus Elan and a Saxo VTR. I was also much closer to my class championship leaders than I've been so I'm confident of a good finish to the season.

Only two events to go for me - Forrestburn (near Shotts) on 26 August and back to Kames on 7 October.